somewhere
amid the pediments and private windows
that make such things inevitable
a conception was made
that would wash the steps and pillars with awe and blood
for tens of cascading generations

all the while
the stations of toilet and repose
are observed with due quotidian solemnity
by both the Righteous and the Have Nots
until their ineluctable encounter through askance
diptych panels

nevertheless
and always hinged conceive
darkness clinging around
steeple and chimney like black-hatch etching
until light feels its way through the sky again making everything a grey
ink-wash

askance from chapter five of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell; architecture always ever is so much more than trim, being the solidified air of encounter between Disraeli’s ‘two nations’ that still breathes to this day; I’m sure Victor Hugo said something about this at length in the beginning pages of Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I can never seem to find them

a little snippet from askance From Hell, askance from chapter ten of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, gwn’n’avvalook

`comes a time also
when inside and
outside do not matter
anymore – ha ha ha
and what heavy and cantilevered structure in which life in all its wrappening
falls away then
and what hideous possibilities
we have propelled become in all our many life we are (sic)
and we suffer them all
step by lifetime-step, accompanied
or alone, within walls, looking
through windows and centuries or just
outside in light

askance from chapter fourteen & the epilogue of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

a little snippet from askance From Hell, askance from chapter ten of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, gwn’n’avvalook

during
months
studying the walls and windows
from across the street; the lines are not that straightafter all; you have to talk with people now and read
between all sorts of lines
creatively and incredibly

there is
a crunch
decades into a career
decades coming (all the while
adverts growing out the ends of terraced housing)
puts decades of striving into doubt when
pension is mooted

askance from chapter thirteen of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

it’s only
the guts and instinct worry us now,
parley of glimpse mostly inured to us, and
only in desperation and worthless art do we follow them
to unravel the unholy mess a little
(too much strain to untangle
too much compromise to try)

the cab
that took him away left
perfect receding lines by the kerbside
out into the busy streets of London;
peoples’ lives are not so sacred now
they twist and float
like idle smoke
from the settled skyline

askance from chapter twelve of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

a little snippet from askance From Hell, askance from chapter ten of From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, gwn’n’avvalook

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… Mark; remember …

"... the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful; it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe to find ashes.
~ Annie Dillard